Oakland, California School Shooting: Worst School Massacres Of All Time

As Oakland, California, reels from the Oikos University tragedy that hit the private Christian school's campus Monday morning, here's a breakdown of the worst school massacres of all time.

Oikos University was in shock Monday morning after a gunman opened fire there, killing at least five people and wounding a number of others, according to ABC News.

Local TV coverage showed people being brought out of the building on stretchers shortly after gunfire broke out at about 10:30 a.m.

Police were posted around Oikos University Monday afternoon, some of whom broke glass doors and stormed into the building, reported the San Francisco Gate, but it was unknown whether the shooter was still in the building.

The assailant, who San Francisco Weekly said opened fire in a classroom, shooting one person in the head and shooting a number of other individuals, was described as an Asian man in his forties, of heavy stature and wearing khakis, the Gate reported. Police had not caught him as of Monday afternoon, SF Weekly reported.

As the world learns more about the tragedy at Oikos University, here's a breakdown of the worst school shootings of all time:

1. The Belsan Stand-off: On Sept. 1, 2004, pro-Chechnya forces stormed School Number One in Belsan, North Ossetia, in a ploy aimed at furthering the rebel groups' political goals. The armed gunmen took over 1,200 students and adults hostage, resulting in a three-day standoff between the Chechen-supporting rebels and the Russian security sent in to deal with the incident. The resulting loss of life was the most significant in the history of school shootings (though this was more than just a teenager with a hit list), as at least 386 people lost their lives that fated day.

2. Virginia Tech Massacre: One of the darkest days in the history of America's higher education system struck the Blacksburg campus of Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, when Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded many others before killing himself. The attack was the deadliest school shooting in the history of the United States, and the school is still working hard to recover from the aftermath of the shooting, which gripped Virginia Tech in terror and left the university permanently associated with the tragedy.

3. Bath Township School Bombings: The sleepy locale of Bath Township in Michigan was rocked on May 18, 1927, by a series of school bombings that combined to result in the most school deaths on any given day in the history of the United States. Scorned former school board member Andrew Kehoe went on a rampage that terrible day, when he set off three bombs. On that one day, he killed 45 people and wounded 58 others; he and the school system's superintendent also died that day when Kehoe blew them up as well.

4. Germany's Worst School Shooting: Erfurt, Germany was left shell-shocked on April 26, 2002, when Robert Steinhauser killed 18 people at his school, Gutenberg-Gymnasium. The student walked through the school's halls, slaying 14 teachers two female classmates and one police officer. He then turned the gun on himself, dying before he could be brought to justice for his assault on humanity.

5. Ma'alot Massacre: The May 15, 1974 Ma'alot massacre is one of the worst school attacks in human history, though like the Belsan stand-off, it was not just an angry-teen-attacking-his-bulliers incident. A trio of Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine assailants took 102 high school students from the Israeli town of Safed hostage in an attack coordinated to coincide with the 26th anniversary of Israel's liberation. The next day the terrorists said they would start killing the children if certain prisoners were not released from Israeli jails. In the end 26 students were killed before and during a raid on the school, during which the attackers were also killed.